Chrissie Wellington has broken her own women's world record for the Iron-distance triathlon in Roth, Germany.The 33-year-old, from Feltwell (pictured) recorded a time of eight hours 19 minutes and 13 seconds to beat her own previous mark by 12.

Chrissie Wellington has broken her own women's world record for the Iron-distance triathlon in Roth, Germany.

The 33-year-old, from Feltwell (pictured) recorded a time of eight hours 19 minutes and 13 seconds to beat her own previous mark by 12.46, taking the Challenge Roth event by more than half an hour from Australia's Rebecca Keat.

Wellington, an MBE, is reigning World Ironman Champion having won the title for a third year in a row in Hawaii last October.

Her win in Roth on Sunday was her ninth victory from nine Iron-distance starts.

“For once I'm lacking the words to describe how I feel,” Wellington said.

“I never thought that I would be able to break my own world record, and to do it has made me so incredibly happy and proud.

“I really didn't think that I could break the world record, but I've shown now that truly anything is possible. I'm so happy.”

Wellington described her race as one “as close to perfect as I have ever had.”

She also proved, as well as at last month's Ironman 70.3 Kansas race, she is back from the injuries that sidelined her in January - not only that, but in her strongest form ever.

Wellington's time will go down as the fastest iron-distance race ever turned in by a female, her world record effort consisting of a 50.28 swim, 4:36.33 ride and a 2:48.54 marathon. she started the day on a strong note, heading into T1 seconds behind one of the sport's fastest swimmers, Canadian Tereza Macel.

While Macel is also known for her cycling skills, she was no match for Wellington as the Feltwell athlete quickly passed her and worked on her lead. It became fairly obvious from the beginning the race would be one for second place.

Behind Wellington, Belinda Granger of Australia, passed Macel and went second.

By the time Wellington completed the 112-mile bike ride and headed into T2, she had developed a lead of nearly 22 minutes.

With that large a lead, the focus turned not to whether or not Wellington would win the race, but whether or not she would break her own record.

With Wellington already well onto the run course, the battle for second position heated up.

Granger, Australia's Rebekah Keat and Macel all finished the bike ride together.

As the trio battled behind her on the run course, Wellington turned in a marathon time of 2:48.54 and she cruised to the finish line, finishing seventh among the men.

The race for second went to Keat in 8:52:10. Macel finished third and Granger fourth.